With a population of 355 million and the vast majority of people living in middle-income countries, the MENA region came into the Arab Spring with multiple strengths, including a young and educated population, strong resource base, and economic resilience that helped it weather the 2008/9 global financial crisis.
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WASHINGTON, October 6, 2014 – Remittances by international migrants from developing countries are on course for strong growth this year, while at the same time forced migration due to violence and con... Show More +flict has reached unprecedented levels, says the World Bank’s latest issue of Migration and Development Brief, released today.Officially recorded remittances to developing countries are expected to reach $435 billion this year, an increase of 5 percent over 2013. The growth rate this year is substantially faster than the 3.4 percent growth recorded in 2013, driven largely by remittances to Asia and Latin America.Remittances to developing countries will continue climbing in the medium term, reaching an estimated $454 billion in 2015.Global remittances, including those to high-income countries, are estimated at $582 billion this year, rising to $608 billion next year.Remittances remain an especially important and stable source of private inflows to developing countries, as they bring in large amounts of foreign currency that help sustain the balance of payments. In 2013, remittances were significantly higher than foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries (excluding China) and were three times larger than official development assistance."Remittances to developing countries grew this year by 5 percent. Remittance inflows provided stable cover for substantial parts of the import bill for such countries as Egypt, Pakistan, Haiti, Honduras, and Nepal. India and China lead the chart with projected remittance inflows of, respectively, $71 and $64 billion in 2014. In addition, India and the Philippines benefit from having migrants with the most diverse destination spread, thereby creating buffers against regional shocks. Given the growing importance of this sector, the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief has become an essential tool for global development policy experts,” said Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank Group.The brief notes that the global average cost of sending remittances continued its downward trend in the third quarter of 2014, falling to 7.9 percent of the value sent, compared to 8.9 percent a year earlier. However, the cost of sending money to Africa remains stubbornly high, exceeding 11 percent.Remittance flows are expected to grow robustly to almost all regions of the developing world, except Europe and Central Asia, where the conflict in Ukraine and associated sanctions are contributing to an economic slowdown in Russia, home to a large number of migrants from the region. The East Asia and Pacific and South Asia regions will continue to attract the largest remittance flows.India, with the world’s largest emigrant stock of 14 million people, will remain in the top spot this year, attracting about $71 billion in remittances. Other large recipients are China ($64 billion), the Philippines ($28 billion), Mexico ($24 billion), Nigeria ($21 billion), Egypt ($18 billion), Pakistan ($17 billion), Bangladesh ($15 billion), Vietnam ($11 billion) and Ukraine ($9 billion).As a share of GDP (2013), the top recipients of remittances were Tajikistan (42 percent), Kyrgyz Republic (32 percent), Nepal (29 percent), Moldova (25 percent), Lesotho and Samoa (24 percent each), Armenia and Haiti (both 21 percent), the Gambia (20 percent) and Liberia (18 percent).In a special analysis on forced migration, the brief notes that forced migration due to conflict is at its highest level since World War II, affecting more than 51 million people. An additional 22 million people have been forced to move due to natural disasters, bringing the total affected by forced migration to at least 73 million, according to the latest available data.“Despite the encouraging outlook for remittance flows, the circumstances of many migrants are troubling. With so many people on the move against their will and many others undertaking desperate and dangerous journeys, it is clear that more effort is needed to make migration safer and cheaper by exploring economically viable policy options,” said Dilip Ratha, Lead Economist, Migration and Remittances, at the World Bank’s Development Prospects Group and Head of the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD).Forced migration is typically viewed as a humanitarian issue but affects growth, employment and public spending for both origin and destination countries. The issue needs to be examined also through a development lens, says the brief.Forced migration is a major challenge in several regions. In developing Europe and Central Asia, 1 million people in Ukraine have been displaced, while the high-income countries of Europe are receiving record numbers of asylum seekers. Applications to the entire region rose to over 480,000, an increase of 68 percent from 2009.Pakistan and Iran top the world list of refugee host countries, as millions of people from neighboring Afghanistan remain displaced after more than 35 years of conflict. At the end of 2013, nine out of 10 refugees were being hosted in developing countries.The war in Syria has displaced half the country’s population, with 3 million refugees crossing borders and 6.5 million people displaced internally. Most Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, joining millions of Iraqi and Palestinian refugees already there. In 2014, Syrians overtook Afghans as the second largest refugee group, outnumbered only by Palestinian refugees.In Sub-Saharan Africa, internal conflict (including renewed instability in South Sudan and Boko Haram activities in Nigeria) together with persistent drought in the Horn of Africa, are resulting in increased forced migration in the region.Regional Remittance TrendsStrong growth in remittances continues to support macroeconomic stability and economic growth in the East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) region. Remittances to the region are projected to increase by 7 percent this year, faster than any other region, to reach $122 billion. China and the Philippines are the region’s largest recipients, in value terms, but the smaller Pacific islands are most dependent on remittances, where they are a significant share of GDP. Remittances to the region are expected to grow by 4.9 percent in 2015 to exceed $127 billion.Weakening economic growth in Russia, the ruble depreciation, and sanctions imposed on Russia by western countries as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, are expected to slow the growth of remittances to the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region this year to 2.2 percent (from 7.5 percent in 2013), bringing remittance flows to $49 billion in 2014. Russia is the largest source of remittances to countries in the region, and Ukraine is ECA’s largest remittance-recipient country. Dependency on remittances is high in several ECA countries, particularly in Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic and Moldova. Remittances to the region are expected to remain broadly unchanged in 2015.Remittance flows to the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region are likely to bounce back this year, following a weak 2013. Recovery in the United States will benefit Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, which together account for more than half of the remittance flows to the region. In contrast, high unemployment in Spain is negatively impacting remittances to Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru. Intraregional remittances from Chile will continue on an upward trend. Remittances to the region are expected to increase by 5 percent this year, compared to 1 percent last year, to $64 billion, rising to $67 billion in 2015.In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, officially recorded remittances are on course to expand moderately this year, rising by 2.9 percent to reach $51 billion in 2014. Flows remain volatile, especially in the three largest recipient countries – Egypt, Lebanon and Morocco. After the sharp fall in flows to Egypt in 2013, remittances are expected to stabilize in 2014, helped by attractive investment opportunities in the planned expansion of the Suez Canal. The ongoing economic crisis and high unemployment rates in Europe will continue to dampen remittances to Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. Flows to the region are expected to strengthen in the coming years, growing by 4 percent in 2015 to reach $53 billion.Remittances to the South Asia region are increasing more robustly this year, accelerating from slower growth in 2013. Although flows to India, the region’s largest remittance recipient, will grow modestly by 1.5 percent in 2014, partial year data point to very strong growth in flows to Pakistan (16.6 percent), Sri Lanka (12.1 percent) and Nepal (12.2 percent). The expansion is being led by flows from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, where skilled and unskilled workers are finding renewed job opportunities. As a result, the growth rate of remittances to the region is expected to more than double this year to 5.5 percent (from 2.7 percent in 2013), boosting volumes to $117 billion in 2014 and rising further to $123 billion in 2015.Growth in remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa is picking up modestly this year. The importance of remittances varies greatly across the region. Remittances as a share of GDP are most significant to Lesotho, the Gambia, Liberia, Senegal and Cabo Verde. Flows as a share of foreign exchange reserves are highest in Sudan, Senegal, Togo, Mali and Cabo Verde. Remittances to the region are expected to reach $33 billion this year and $34 billion in 2015. Show Less -

Two-thirds of the world’s poorest people remain uncovered, says WB reportWASHINGTON, May 13, 2014 – Social safety net programs have grown exponentially around the world in recent years, but more than ... Show More +two-thirds of the world’s 1.2 billion poorest people –those living on less than US$1.25 per day—are still not covered, says a new World Bank report. According to The State of Social Safety Nets 2014, more than 1 billion people in 146 low- and middle-income countries benefit from social safety net programs, yet 870 million of the world’s poorest people remain uncovered.Social safety net programs include cash and in-kind transfers targeted to poor and vulnerable households, with the goal of protecting families from the impact of economic shocks, natural disasters, and other crises; ensuring that children grow up healthy, well-fed, and can stay in school and learn; empowering women and girls; and creating jobs.“On average, developing countries spend 1.6 percent of their GDP on social safety nets. This is low compared to other public policy measures such as fuel subsidies, which do not target the poorest. More can be done to reach the world’s poorest people,” said Arup Banerji, the World Bank’s Director for Social Protection and Labor. “There is a strong and growing body of evidence that social safety nets are one of the most cost-effective ways for countries to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.”The report is the first in a series of studies that will monitor and report on the growth and coverage of social safety nets in the developing world, highlight promising innovations, and review important policy and practical developments in this area.The growth of social safety nets has been bolstered by mounting evidence of their impact on reducing poverty, improving maternal and child health and nutrition, boosting school attendance and learning outcomes, and promoting sustained economic growth. Over the past three years, a total of 53 new impact evaluations on social safety nets have been completed, most of them in Africa. Robust evidence continues to mount on the merits of social safety nets, notes the report.In terms of global social safety net coverage, the report shows that countries at lower levels of income face the greatest gaps in reaching the poorest people: In low-income countries, where 47 percent of the population is extremely poor, social safety nets cover less than 10 percent of the population.In lower-middle income countries, social safety nets reach about one-quarter of the extreme poor, but the remaining half a billion of the poorest people remain uncovered.The situation is best in upper-middle income countries, where about 45 percent of the extreme poor are covered by social safety nets.The report notes that the expansion of social safety net programs, particularly in the form of cash transfers, is particularly evident in Sub-Saharan Africa. For example, 37 African countries currently have unconditional cash transfer programs, almost double the number four years ago. Globally, the number of countries with a conditional cash transfer program increased from 27 countries in 2008 to 52 in 2013. Similar trends are notable for other types of safety net programs such as public works.Available data on combined spending on social safety nets in low- and middle-income countries amounts to US$337 billion. Despite the positive trend, the report also notes that developing countries’ spending on social safety nets is still disproportionally low.In the Middle East and North Africa, average expenditures on fuel subsidies are 4 times higher than those for social safety nets. Similar spending patterns are observed in India, Cameroon, Malaysia, Ecuador, Indonesia and Bangladesh.“Three countries –India, China and Brazil—have the largest social safety nets programs in the world, and account for almost half of global coverage. Lower-income countries are learning from their experience,” said Banerji. “This new data shows that, if safety nets are done right, it is possible to close the gap on coverage and reach all of the 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty across the world.”The report also notes that countries are moving from fragmented programs to integrated social protection systems. New strategies, better institutional coordination, and innovative administrative tools are emerging worldwide. For instance, the Cadastro social registry in Brazil is helping to collect data on 27 million people and then linking it to more than 10 social programs, enabling policymakers to see who benefits from which programs and who does not, so they can better target programs to reach the people most in need.Currently around 68 countries have a national social protection strategy in place that outlines such systemic approaches, up from just 19 in 2009. In addition, 10 countries have now introduced institutional bodies to coordinate social protection programs across sectors and ministries. Show Less -

PartnersMany urban development projects are funded and implemented in collaboration with partner organizations, including Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Australian Agency for International D... Show More +evelopment (AusAID), Austria-World Bank Urban Partnership Program on Strengthening Local Governments in South-East-European Countries, Bank-Netherlands Partnership Program (BNPP), Cities Alliance, Climate Investment Fund, German technical cooperation (Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ), Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), Haiti Fund, Japan Policy and Human Resources Development Fund (PHRD), German Development Bank (KfW), Korean Green Growth Trust Fund (KGGTF), Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) for Sustainable Urban Development, and Spanish Trust Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean (SFLAC).The joint work program between the Cities Alliance, the World Bank, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) aims to help cities address challenges to climate change by capturing current knowledge on the issue and help local and national decision-makers incorporate climate change adaptation and mitigation into their urban planning.Partnerships have been formed and support received for global analytics and operationalization of the urbanization and green growth agenda from the Government of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, and the UK, with strong partnerships/MOUs with C40 and Rockefeller Foundation.Moving ForwardThe World Bank has launched several initiatives to address development challenges associated with urbanization:Urbanization Reviews are country diagnostics to help better understand how different actors coordinate their investment decisions in urban settings across different regions and stages of development – have built the evidence base on the patterns of urbanization and urban growth. Partners such as DfID and SECO, among others, are supporting this work through the Global Urban Data program which will strengthen the evidence and analytic methodologies to examine patterns of urbanization and help related policy and investment decisions.Low Carbon Livable Cities (LC2) Initiative provides planning and technical support for cities interested in developing low carbon action plans and projects and financing strategies to get the necessary investment capital flowing.City Creditworthiness Academy provides city governments with targeted technical assistance and capacity building activities, helping a city transition to creditworthiness in order to self-finance new investments.Inclusive cities program works to reconceptualize inclusive cities, moving beyond traditional urban upgrading to multi-sectoral approaches, bringing social and economic inclusion fully into the approach and moving upgrading from the current after-the-fact "curative" approach to prevention.Resilient cities initiative, jointly with GFDRR, is designed to help cities adapt to a changing climate and understand the challenges they face. Multiple partners are being consulted to assess the possibility of developing common tools and methods for all to use going forward.Competitive cities knowledge base, initiated jointly with the Bank’s Finance and Private Sector Development teams, analyzes the determinants of competitiveness of cities, helping city leaders prioritize public investments to promote competitiveness, attract investment and jobs, and support financing and implementation strategies. Plans are being explored to engage in:Global Urban Extent project, which will develop a standard definition of urban extents to be applied globally, to create a publicly available database for monitoring and analyzing changes in urban extents and population locations and densitiesUrban land and housing program, which will develop diagnostics and practical policy advice that draws from new information sources, such as earth observation, and from improved tools and frameworks for urban land use and transport integration in order to will help policy makers find evidence-based solutions to providing urban land and affordable housing.The Bank is also partnering with external institutions to engage in knowledge exchange and capacity building activities in areas including metropolitan strategic planning, municipal finance and governance, urban service delivery, safe and resilient cities, and new tools such as earth observation.Beneficiaries“This [the Barrio Ciudad Project] is the best thing that has happened to us. [Barrio La Roca in Puerto Cortes] is one of the most violent and difficult neighborhoods, people have access to electricity, water, sewerage, roads and a kindergarten for the first time in their lives…we now have public lightning 24/7, people feel safer, they go out, people socialize and the community is more united”. In the Colonia Miguel Yanez Rios in Villa Nueva, a resident stated that “The Mara 18 [local gang group] was here, now they are gone thanks to the Project”. “Now the children will not have to play in the streets, they can do it in a safer area. Now they will not be in such danger. We will be at ease knowing that our little ones are not exposed to all kinds of harm, and when our children are safe, we are happier” says Juana Márquez, a mother in Puerto Cortés. Show Less -

Bank Group ContributionThe World Bank funding for water resources management amounted to about US$8.08 billion across projects approved during fiscal years 2004-2013. In FY11 as well as FY12, Wo... Show More +rld Bank funding for water resources management amounted to US$1.2 billion; in FY13, it amounted to US$ 800 million.PartnersThe Bank collaborates with partners to support innovation in integrated water resources management. Given the broad reach of water resources management needs and initiatives, this type of collaboration has been significant.The World Bank strengthens the quality of its water projects through additional support from Global Partnership Programs.The Bank’s Water Partnership Program (WPP), a multi-donor trust fund, contributes to the Bank’s efforts to reduce poverty by bolstering operational and analytical work through the mainstreaming of pragmatic approaches for water resources management and water supply and sanitation service delivery. Under its first phase (2009-2012), the program helped influence almost US$11.7 billion in Bank financing and secured access to improved water and sanitation services for more than 50 million people. Under the WPP's second phase (2013-2016) more than $40 million will be committed to tackling water challenges by working at the nexus of food, energy and water security, and by supporting paths to climate-resilient, green growth.Significant amounts of water are needed in almost all energy generation processes. Conversely, the water sector needs energy to extract, treat and transport water and both energy and water are used in the production of crops. To support countries’ efforts to address chal­lenges in energy and water management proactively, the World Bank with the support of WPP has embarked in 2013 on a global initiative: Thirsty Energy. The initiative aims to help governments prepare for an uncertain future, and break disciplinary silos that prevent cross-sectoral planning. Thirsty Energy demonstrates the importance of combined energy and water management approaches through demand-based work in several countries, thus providing examples of how evidence-based operational tools in resource management can enhance sustain­able development.Next to innovative and often integrated water services solutions, WPP activities take a comprehensive approach to water resources, working at the river basin, delta, or country level to assess and define the best strategies for sustainable management. The program’s Water Expert Team (WET), which mobilizes high-level global expertise to meet complex and urgent demand, also devotes two-thirds of its support to World Bank water resources management programs that focus on improved decision making for disaster risk management and uncertainty under natural water variability and climate change impacts.Established in 2009, the South Asia Water Initiative (SAWI) is a multi-donor partnership between the World Bank and the governments of United Kingdom, Australia and Norway. The overarching objective of SAWI is to: increase regional cooperation in the management of the major Himalayan river systems in South Asia to deliver sustainable, fair and inclusive development and climate resilience. SAWI supports activities related to the management of the Greater Himalayas transboundary water systems in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. The key rationale for engagement is to demonstrate and then to help achieve the mutual benefits of cooperation across shared river basins.Cooperation in International Waters in Africa (CIWA) aims to support and assist riparian governments in Africa to work together to address and unlock the constraints on growth and development posed by international waters. Specifically, it focuses on strengthening regional cooperation, water resources management and development, and stakeholder engagement and coordination by enabling greater voice and accountability. The program is supported by Development Partners, including the UK, Denmark and Norway.In March 2011, the World Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States government to expand and enhance collaboration in the water sector. The Bank is working in close cooperation with 16 U.S. agencies to support developing countries in managing global water crises, such as the lack of safe drinking water and sanitation, diminishing aquifers, drought, flooding, and climate change impacts.Moving ForwardContinuous Bank leadership and strengthened support will be critical to secure the above achievements and increase the benefits to poverty alleviation and sustainable development. The World Bank is currently developing a new vision for water that strengthens the water practice to deliver on the bold leadership aspirations and meet changing client need. The vision places water at the center of helping people, economies and ecosystems thrive and thus contributing to a world free of poverty. Moving forward the Bank will:Strengthen efforts to address climate variability in Bank-financed projects through improved storage and other adaptation measures, flood control, and emergency response preparednessDevote more resources to explore and strengthen the linkages between water and other sectors such as energy, agriculture and the environment, and support initiatives that aim at improving water allocation mechanisms and institutionsEnsure that water considerations are included in country-sectoral planningImprove efficiency of water supply systemsEnsure that the food security agenda considers irrigation and work with clients to improve water efficiency of existing irrigation schemesStrengthen the use and supply of data for decision making and dialogue between countries, and facilitate the integration of technologies for more reliable informationContinue its strong support to institutional reform and capacity building of relevant organizations, and strengthen global water partnerships for lasting impact BeneficiariesIt is something Arwa Mohamed remembers well. When it rained, the floodwaters in the streets in her Taiz neighborhood in Yemen were so high people were stuck for days “When it would rain and the kids were in school, we were afraid, because the floods would come and cut off the streets, and whoever was home - the mothers - would wait by the windows to see their children coming, and scream out ‘don’t try to cross, it is dangerous.’ The flood once even swept away an old woman and her grandchild.” Finally, says Arwa, “her neighborhood is safe.” The rain waters still come, but now travel underneath her neighborhood, instead of through it, by way of a covered channel. “Now we have these nicely paved streets, and we can cross even during floods, but before, we were completely cut from life when it rained, see what I mean?”Shawki Ahmed Hayel Saeed, Taiz Local Council and businessman “It was not only the improvements of solving the problems of the water flooding that happened in Taiz in the last few years, but it was also for the additional contracts that were implemented in these projects, for paving and asphalting a lot of streets in the city, employing a lot of people, and also helping the local council in training and improving the revenues for the people’s participation in the project in Taiz.”For 28-year old grocer, Amin Jibari, the project has finally brought security to his basement home “ no more, everything now is good, after they built the channel and a protection wall, the floods don’t come here, we are relaxed, no flooding!” Amin says since the construction of a covered channel nearby, he and his family of five are no longer in danger! 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PartnersDisaster risk management was universally endorsed as a development priority through the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in 2005. This framework is an agreement signed by 168 governments and i... Show More +nternational organizations, including the World Bank Group and the United Nations, to support disaster prevention across the world.As a partnership financing mechanism, GFDRR includes 43 country governments as well as eight international organizations. Recognizing the need for partnership and synergy in the post-disaster context, the World Bank, the United Nations (UN) and the European Commission entered into a Joint Declaration on Post-Crises Assessments and Recovery Planning in 2008 to improve the coordination of support offered to governments affected by disasters.The bank is working closely with UNDP on the development of the Disaster Recovery Framework Guide to guide recovery after major disasters, and with WMO on various hydro meteorological programs around the world.GFDRR has also expanded its global partnerships, including a noticeable growth in the Understanding Risk community of global experts that currently connects more than 2,800 members from 125 countries, including representatives from the public and private sector, multilateral organizations, civil society, academia and scientific and technology communities.Increasingly, partnership is taking on new and innovative forms, including through expert communities and civil society. For example ‘volunteer technical communities’ who apply their skills to some of the most complex aspects of DRM, such as mapping risk and evaluating mitigation options. The Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK), a public-private-people partnership, brings together 150 government, private sector and civil society partners supporting the initiative around the globe.Another example of an innovative partnership is the development of the Indonesia Scenario Assessment for Emergencies, InaSAFE. The initiative was developed in partnership with the Indonesian National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB), GFDRR and the World Bank, the Australian government .Moving ForwardIn 2015, three international processes will bring disaster and climate resilience to the forefront of the development agenda. They include the new international agreement on climate change; the successor to the Millennium Development Goals (including the Sustainable Development Goals); and the Post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.The World Bank will provide timely, cutting-edge DRM knowledge and expertise to partner countries, and will continue to mainstream DRM across all sectors of investment. The World Bank will support countries in the development and use of risk information, further development of country and sector risk profiles, capacity building, and the use of spatial and structural risk analyses to inform investment planning.The World Bank will strive to scale up technical assistance and targeted DRM financing to high-risk developing countries that lack the resources and capacity to invest in long-term risk reduction activities. In addition, the Bank will increase its advisory support for financial exposure profiles, risk financing strategies and sustainable domestic catastrophe risk insurance markets.Looking ahead, climate change and disaster risks will be further considered in IDA countries in particular. The IDA 17 Policy Commitments call for the integration of climate and disaster risk considerations into core World Bank operations by (a) requiring all IDA Country Partnership Frameworks to incorporate climate and disaster risk; (b) screening all new IDA operations for climate and disaster risks; (c) supporting at least 25 additional IDA countries to manage climate and disaster risk as part of development; and (d) strengthen and enhance monitoring to capture disaster risk management and climate change co-benefits in lending and non-lending technical assistance.Beneficiaries“I still remember Cyclone Sidr in 2007,” said Hasina Begum, Headmistress of Paschim Napitkhali Primary School in Barguna, Bangladesh. “There were warnings, but nothing could really prepare us for what happened. Cyclone Sidr hit my hometown, Barguna with ferocious intensity. Powerful gusts of winds and heavy rainfalls frightened the helpless people, many of whom had left their homes and possessions to seek the protection of cyclone-shelters, like my school.” The Paschim Napitkhali Primary School, a non-descript two storied building played a life-saving role in 2007, when Barguna and other coastal regions were hit hard by the storm surge of over 5 meters (16 ft). Initially established by Hasina’s father, the school was later rebuilt and converted into a school and cyclone shelter. During the year, the primary school bustles with children – but during cyclones and other natural disasters, the building doubles up as a shelter. In 2007, this cyclone-shelter alone had helped save more than 800 people.With the effects of climate change likely to increase the frequency and severity of natural disasters, Bangladesh needs to prepare adequately for increased uncertainty. With this in mind, approximately 700 cyclone shelters are in the process of being constructed or upgraded with better designs with support from the World Bank to protect the country’s coastal population. Show Less -

Bank Group ContributionFor FY13, nearly $3 billion in lending commitments at the World Bank are expected to provide adaptation co-benefits, of which just over $2 billion came from IDA and nearly $900 ... Show More +billion from IBRD. More than $4 billion in FY 13 will provide mitigation co-benefits; $1.8 billion from IBRD and $2.3 billion from IDA. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Bank’s private-sector arm, committed nearly $2.5 billion for mitigation, an increase of nearly $900 million.Highlights from the World Bank Group’s contributions include:82 projects in 50 countries: 24 have adaptation co-benefits, 39 mitigation co-benefits and 19 have both. At $2.3 billion, clean energy continued to account for the largest share of the Bank’s mitigation support in FY13.At $910 million, Water, Sanitation and Flood Protection represented one-third of adaptation financing in FY13 and an increasing part of the sector’s commitment support adaptation (about 40 percent), demonstrating integration of adaptation and disaster-risk management.The lion’s share of IFC’s $2.5-billion commitment was targeted at mitigation with renewable energy and energy-efficiency accounting for 89 percent of total commitment.IBRD and the International Finance Corp. (IFC) are the world's largest issuers of green bonds, which support climate-related projects - with $5.3 billion issued by the World Bank Treasury in 61 bonds and 17 currencies, and $3.4 billion by the IFC Treasury, including two $1 billion benchmark offerings in 2013.The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), another member of the World Bank Group, is working with financial institutions to help strengthen capital and financial markets and reach out to smaller clients. For FY13, MIGA issued $1 billion in guarantees, supporting eight projects that contribute to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. These projects include a windfarm and a bamboo plantation in Nicaragua, power projects in Bangladesh, Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, and Uganda; ferry transportation in Turkey, and a wastewater treatment plant in Jordan.PartnersThe World Bank Group has successfully demonstrated innovative ways to mobilize additional resources to finance climate action by working with partners.The $8 billion Climate Investment Funds (CIF), established in 2008, are playing a key role in meeting international objectives regarding climate change. Designed to scale up climate knowledge and finance, the CIF are attracting significant co-financing—an expected $55 billion—to support its activities in 48 middle and low-income countries in clean technology, renewable energy, sustainable management of forests, and climate-resilient development. Financing from the CIF is channeled through the Bank and other multilateral development banks, with approximately 25 percent of its financing allocated to the private sector to stimulate markets, increase investment potential, and enable financial gain in climate-friendly enterprises and businesses.For more than a decade, the Bank has supported carbon finance. When established in 1999, the role of the Prototype Carbon Fund was to catalyze the global market for greenhouse gas emission reductions. Today, the World Bank is Trustee of 15 carbon funds and facilities, and the Carbon Finance Unit is supporting more than 140 projects in 50+ countries. Since 2000, these initiatives have reduced the equivalent of 187 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions through the projects they support.Next-generation carbon initiatives include the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, working to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+); the Carbon Partnership Facility; the Partnership for Market Readiness; the Carbon Initiative for Development; and the Bio Carbon Fund Tranche 3. These innovative instruments seek to support a variety of market-based mechanisms that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries.Responding to client priorities, the Bank has also worked with partners to strengthen the operational links between climate adaptation and disaster risk management. The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) helps high-risk, low-income developing countries better understand and reduce their vulnerabilities to natural hazards, and adapt to climate change. The GFDRR’s Open Data for Resilience (OpenDRI) was launched in 2010 to support such efforts. In the wake of the November 2013 Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, the Yolanda GeoNode team used the collected more than 72 layers of geospatial data, including damage assessments and situation reports by local and international agencies. GFDRR is managed by the World Bank Group and funded by 21 donor partners.The Bank continues to actively channel funds to clients under the climate change focal area of the Global Environment Facility. So far, nearly $2 billion has been invested. Channeling funds from the facility, the Bank supported Tunisia's bid to achieve greater energy-efficiency.Since 1991, the World Bank–China Montreal Protocol Partnership has phased out the consumption and production of more than 219,000 tons of ozone-depleting substances from sectors as diverse as refrigeration, air-conditioning, foam manufacturing, aerosol production and fire extinguishing. This also avoided the equivalent of 885 million tons of carbon dioxide, akin to taking more than 184 million cars off the roads.Increasingly, the Bank is also engaging in strategic partnerships to address short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs). To tackle these heat-trapping pollutants – which include methane, black carbon, tropospheric ozone, and some hydrofluorocarbons – the Bank launched a review of its own project portfolio to identify ways to reduce such emissions. The report, found that 7.7 percent of World Bank commitments, or about $18 billion, went into "SLCP-relevant" activities between 2007 and 2012.Moving ForwardWith the prospect of a warmer world, the imperative to adapt to a changing climate further emphasizes the need to scale up support for climate-resilient, low-carbon development. The Bank’s Climate Change Group is helping developing countries build capacity to address climate change, mobilize resources and support changes in strategies, policies and investments that enable a shift to a low-emissions development path and increase resilience to climate change. Specifically, it provides capacity-building services, knowledge exchange, learning products, and platforms for innovative solutions in three program areas: Sustainable Energy and Cities, Climate-Smart Agriculture, and Low Emissions Development Policy and Finance.Further attention will be given in IDA countries to help clients and partners understand and manage the adaptation-development linkages in different contexts. IBRD resources can be expected to be called for supporting transformational programs with lower emissions catalyzed by dedicated climate resources. It is also anticipated that there will be growing demand for IBRD capital for guarantees and insurance products to attract private sector investments in new technologies and in climate-vulnerable areas. Contributions to existing and emerging climate funds are expected to leverage considerable underlying financing from public and private sources. As part of the United Nations family, the World Bank Group will be increasingly working with other agencies on climate actions in the context of sustainable development.BeneficiariesA rural electrification program in Bangladesh has been installing more than 50,000 solar homes systems every month since 2002. The program provides clean, emissions-free energy that will not contribute to climate change, while promoting development. The fastest-growing solar homes systems program in the world, this IDA-supported initiative has delivered off-gird solar power to 2.8 million households. “We can study much better now,” says 10-year-old Kusum Koli Roy. “The solar lights have helped us a lot with our education.”Another climate-friendly energy project, in Nepal, has been delivering more than 1,000 micro hydropower plants since 2007 to communities in 52 districts across the country. The new source of clean, renewable electricity helped 27-year-old Laxmi Rasalli open a poultry farm with 300 chickens that bring a new source of income to her family. “I could not have started raising these chickens if we didn’t have electricity,” Rasalli says. Show Less -

ResultsThrough its technical and financing partnerships, the WBG has helped developing countries secure expanded benefits of financial inclusion for women. For example:Starting in 2010, the World Bank... Show More + has helped Indonesia develop its new Financial Inclusion Strategy, which includes empowering women as a priority focus. One of the programs that the Bank supports is financial literacy training for the 4.3 million Indonesian migrant workers, the majority of whom are women from lower-income rural households.IFC’s Banking on Women Program plays a catalyzing role for IFC partners and financial institutions to help them profitably and sustainably serve women-owned businesses. As of December 2013, the program has developed a track record which includes 16 investment projects, ranging from long term loans to instruments such as risk sharing facilities that help share the risk FIs undertake when assuming greater exposure in new or riskier markets, amounting to almost US$700 million in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, and East and Central Europe. In addition, IFC issued the first-ever Banking on Women Bond in 2013 that raised US$165 million to be invested in projects that will support women entrepreneurs in developing countries.For the first time, policymakers worldwide have a detailed picture of women’s access to finance, provided by the Global Findex. This complements data provided by Gender Entrepreneurship Markets (GEM) program, Women, Business and the Law, Global Financial Development Report 2014 on Financial Inclusion and Financial Capability surveys—all World Bank Group-sponsored studies. WBG experts are working with national policymakers and regulators in more than 20 countries to design and implement reforms that meet the constraints identified by these surveys.Groundbreaking research supported by the World Bank in Pakistan found that more than two-thirds of women microfinance borrowers required a male relative’s permission in order to qualify for any kind of loan. Changes in loan selection procedures and requirements, spurred by this information, could help open up access for women and enable them to manage their finances in a way that meets their own priorities. Show Less -

New Thirsty Energy initiative to help countries mitigate impact of water scarcity on energy securityABU DHABI, January 20, 2014 –The World Bank is launching a new initiative at the World Future Energy... Show More + Summit and International Water Summit in Abu Dhabi that will help developing countries better plan and manage scaling-up energy capacity to meet rising demand, in tandem with water resource management.Producing energy requires a lot of water. Yet, the availability of and access to water is negatively impacting energy production around the world.Last year alone, water shortages shut down thermal power plants in India, decreased energy production in power plants in the United States and threatened hydropower generation in many countries, including Sri Lanka, China and Brazil.The problem is expected only to get worse. By 2035, the world’s energy consumption will increase by 35 percent, which in turn will increase water consumption by 85 percent, according to the International Energy Agency. “The world’s energy and water are inextricably linked. With demand rising for both resources and increasing challenges from climate change, water scarcity can threaten the long-term viability of energy projects and hinder development,” said Rachel Kyte, World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change.Part of the challenge for the energy sector is the competing demand for water. This demand will grow as the world’s population reaches 9 billion, requiring a 50 percent increase in agricultural production and a 15 percent increase in already-strained water withdrawals. With two-thirds of the world’s population - or 5 billion people - urbanized by 2030, cities in developing countries will be under tremendous pressure to meet the demand for food, energy, and water services. Yet today, some 780 million people lack access to improved water and 2.5 billion, more than one-third of the world's people, do not have basic sanitation.Thirsty Energy is a global initiative aimed to help governments prepare for an uncertain future by:identifying synergies and quantifying tradeoffs between energy development plans and water usepiloting cross-sectoral planning to ensure sustainability of energy and water investmentsdesigning assessment tools and management frameworks to help governments coordinate decision-makingWith the energy sector as an entry point, initial work has already started in South Africa and dialogue has been initiated in Bangladesh, Morocco, and Brazil where the challenges have already manifested and thus where demand exists for integrated approaches.Failing to anticipate water constraints in energy investments can increase risks and costs for energy projects. In fact, the majority of energy and utility companies consider water a substantive risk and report water-related business impacts.The issue is too large for any partner or sector to tackle alone.“Water constraints on the energy sector can be overcome, but all stakeholders, public and private, must work together to develop innovative tools and use water as a guiding factor for assessing viability of projects,” said Maria van der Hoeven, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency. “The absence of integrated planning is unsustainable.”Solutions exist, but countries must continue to innovate and adapt policies and technology to address the complexity of the landscape. These solutions include technological development and adoption, improved operations to reduce water use and impacts in water quality, and strong integrated planning.“We cannot meet our global energy goals of extending access to the poor, increasing efficiency and expanding renewables without water. The water energy interrelationship is critical to build resilient as well as efficient, clean energy systems. The time to act is now,” said Kyte. Show Less -

Growth outlook sensitive to US taper in 2014WASHINGTON, January 14, 2014 – The world economy is projected to strengthen this year, with growth picking up in developing countries and high-income econom... Show More +ies appearing to be finally turning the corner five years after the global financial crisis, says the World Bank’s newly-released Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report.The firming of growth in developing countries is being bolstered by an acceleration in high-income countries and continued strong growth in China. However, growth prospects remain vulnerable to headwinds from rising global interest rates and potential volatility in capital flows, as the United States Federal Reserve Bank begins withdrawing its massive monetary stimulus.“Growth appears to be strengthening in both high-income and developing countries, but downside risks continue to threaten the global economic recovery,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “The performance of advanced economies is gaining momentum, and this should support stronger growth in developing countries in the months ahead. Still, to accelerate poverty reduction, developing nations will need to adopt structural reforms that promote job creation, strengthen financial systems, and shore up social safety nets.”Global GDP growth is projected to firm from 2.4 percent in 2013 to 3.2 percent this year, stabilizing at 3.4 percent and 3.5 percent in 2015 and 2016[1], respectively, with much of the initial acceleration reflecting stronger growth in high-income economies.Growth in developing countries will pick up from 4.8 percent in 2013 to a slower than previously expected 5.3 percent this year, 5.5 percent in 2015 and 5.7 percent in 2016. While the pace is about 2.2 percentage points lower than during the boom period of 2003-07, the slower growth is not a cause for concern. Almost all of the difference reflects a cooling off of the unsustainable turbo-charged pre-crisis growth, with very little due to an easing of growth potential in developing countries. Moreover, even this slower growth represents a substantial (60 percent) improvement compared with growth in the 1980s and early 1990s.For high-income countries, the drag on growth from fiscal consolidation and policy uncertainty will ease, helping to boost economic growth from 1.3 percent in 2013 to 2.2 percent this year, stabilizing at 2.4 percent for each of 2015 and 2016. Amongst high-income economies, the recovery is most advanced in the US, with GDP expanding for 10 quarters now. The US economy is projected to grow by 2.8 percent this year (from 1.8 percent in 2013), firming to 2.9 and 3.0 percent in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Growth in the Euro Area, after two years of contraction, is projected to be 1.1 percent this year, and 1.4 and 1.5 percent in 2015 and 2016, respectively.“Global economic indicators show improvement. But one does not have to be especially astute to see there are dangers that lurk beneath the surface. The Euro Area is out of recession but per capita incomes are still declining in several countries. We expect developing country growth to rise above 5 percent in 2014, with some countries doing considerably better, with Angola at 8 percent, China 7.7 percent, and India at 6.2 percent. But it is important to avoid policy stasis so that the green shoots don't turn into brown stubble,” said Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank.Developing countries face counterbalancing forces from high-income countries. The strengthening in high-income countries will boost demand for developing country exports, on the one hand, while rising interest rates will dampen capital flows, on the other. The report projects global trade to grow from an estimated 3.1 percent in 2013 to 4.6 percent this year and 5.1 percent in each of 2015 and 2016.However, weaker commodity prices will continue to temper trade revenues. Between their early-2011 peaks and recent lows in November 2013, the real prices of energy and food have declined by 9 and 13 percent, respectively, while those of metals and minerals have fallen by 30 percent. These downward pressures on commodity prices are expected to persist, in part reflecting additional supply.“The strengthening recovery in high-income countries is very welcome, but it brings with it risks of disruption as monetary policy tightens. To date, the gradual withdrawal of quantitative easing has gone smoothly. However, if interest rates rise too rapidly, capital flows to developing countries could fall by 50 percent or more for several months – potentially provoking a crisis in some of the more vulnerable economies,” said Andrew Burns, Acting Director of the Development Prospects Group and lead author of the report.Private capital inflows to developing countries remain sensitive to global financial conditions. As high-income monetary policy normalizes in response to stronger growth, global interest rates are projected to slowly rise. The impact of an orderly tightening of financial conditions on developing-country investment and growth is expected to be modest, with capital flows to developing countries projected to ease from about 4.6 percent of developing country GDP in 2013 to 4.1 percent in 2016. However, should the adjustment be disorderly, as it was in response to speculation about when a taper might begin during the spring and summer of 2013, interest rates could rise much more quickly. Depending on the severity of the market reaction, capital flows to developing countries could be cut by 50 percent or more for several months. In such a scenario, countries that have large current account deficits, large proportions of external debt and those that have had big credit expansions in recent years would be among the most vulnerable.The report points out that, although the main tail risks that have preoccupied the global economy over the past five years have subsided, the underlying challenges remain. Moreover, while developing countries responded to the global financial crisis by deploying fiscal and monetary stimuli, the scope for such actions has declined, with government budgets and current account balances in the red in most countries.Policy makers need to give thought now to how they would respond to a significant tightening of global financing conditions. Countries with adequate policy buffers and investor confidence may be able to rely on market mechanisms, counter-cyclical macroeconomic and prudential policies to deal with a decline in flows. In other cases, where the scope for maneuvering is more limited, countries may be forced to tighten fiscal policy to reduce financing needs or raise interest rates to incite additional inflows. Where adequate foreign reserves exist, these can be used to moderate the pace of exchange rate adjustments, while a loosening of capital inflow regulation and incentives for foreign direct investment might help smooth adjustment. Finally, by improving the longer term outlook, credible reform agendas can go a long way towards boosting investor and market confidence. This could set in motion a virtuous cycle of stronger investment, including foreign investment, and output growth over the medium term.The full report and accompanying datasets are available at www.worldbank.org/globaloutlookRegional Highlights:Growth in East Asia & the Pacific eased for the third year to an estimated 7.2 percent in 2013, reflecting slower growth in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, where weak commodity revenues, and policy tightening to address domestic overheating cut into activity. Domestic vulnerabilities generated during the years of expansionary policies remain a damper for the region. GDP in China is projected to stay flat in 2014 at 7.7 percent, slowing to 7.5 percent for the next two years, reflecting deleveraging and less reliance on policy-induced investment. The region is vulnerable to risks of disorderly unwinding in Chinese investment and abrupt tightening in global financing conditions. Commodity exporters are also vulnerable to sharper than expected declines in commodity prices.Growth in developing Europe & Central Asia strengthened in 2013 to an estimated 3.4 percent, bolstered by improved exports to high-income Europe and continued strength in energy-exporting Central Asian countries. With strong trade and financial links with high-income Europe, the Central and Eastern European economies will benefit most from the recovery but the growth impetus from stronger exports will be partly offset by weaker domestic demand due to ongoing banking sector restructuring, tighter international financial conditions, and ongoing or planned fiscal consolidation in several countries. The mix will keep growth stable at 3.5 percent in 2014, gradually lifting to 3.7 and 3.8 percent in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Risks include a return to weakness in the Euro Area or Russia, disorderly adjustment to tighter global financial conditions, and further sharp declines in commodity prices.Subdued global trade, tighter financing conditions and less supportive commodity markets in 2013, have left many countries in Latin America & Caribbean struggling with relatively weak growth. Domestic demand growth has moderated, notably in Brazil, although activity is starting to recover in Mexico and exports are rebounding in Central America, partly supported by the Panama Canal expansion. Regional growth is projected to pick up from 2.9 percent in 2014, to 3.2 percent in 2015, before accelerating to 3.7 percent by 2016. Strong export growth, along with steady consumption growth, is expected to nudge Brazil’s growth to 3.7 percent in 2016. Hinging on the pickup in the United States, Mexico is expected to grow by 3.4 percent in 2014, accelerating to 4.2 percent in 2016. Downside risks for the region include a disorderly jump in global interest rates and a prolonged and deeper slump in commodity prices.The developing economies of the Middle East & North Africa remain depressed. Political turmoil in Egypt, stalemate in Tunisia, and an escalation of the civil war in Syria, with spillovers to neighboring Lebanon and Jordan, have weakened activity in the oil importing countries. At the same time, security setbacks, strikes, infrastructure problems, and in the case of Iran, international sanctions, have negatively affected oil exporting countries. Regional growth, which contracted by 0.1 percent in 2013, is expected to remain weak with the outlook shrouded in uncertainty. Aggregate growth for the region is projected at 2.8 percent in 2014, firming to 3.3 in 2015 and 3.6 percent in 2016, well below the region’s potential.Growth in South Asia expanded a modest 4.6 percent in 2013, reflecting weakness in India amid high inflation, and current account and government deficits. More recently, regional exports have recovered, because of strengthening external demand and the earlier depreciation of the Indian rupee. Regional growth is projected to improve to 5.7 percent in 2014, rising to 6.7 percent in 2016, led mainly by recovering import demand by high-income economies and regional investment. The projected pickup, however, will depend on macroeconomic stability, sustained policy reforms, and progress in reducing supply side constraints. India’s growth is projected to rise to over 6 percent in FY2014-15, increasing to 7.1 percent by FY2016-17. The main risks to the outlook are fiscal and policy reforms going off-track; uncertainties related to elections in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India; entrenchment of inflation expectations; and a disorderly adjustment of capital flows in response to US tapering.Economic growth picked up in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2013, supported by strong resource-based investments. Real GDP growth strengthened to an estimated 4.7 percent for the region. Excluding South Africa, the average growth for the rest of the region was 6.0 percent. The recovery during the first half of 2013 was weak among oil exporters (Angola, Gabon, Nigeria), while industrial output in South Africa contracted in Q3. Robust domestic demand, relatively resilient FDI flows and lower inflation should help support regional growth of about 5.3 percent in 2014, 5.4 percent in 2015, firming to 5.5 percent in 2016. The region is relatively insensitive to rising global interest rates, but very vulnerable to sharper than projected declines in commodity prices and domestic risks related to weather shocks to local harvests and food prices, political strife, security risks in northern Nigeria, and pirate attacks along the gulf of Guinea, which could raise shipment costs and disrupt regional trade.[1] Using 2005 purchasing power parity weights, global growth would be 3.7, 3.9 and 4.0 percent in 2014. 2015 and 2016, respectively. Show Less -

Policy Interventions Can Turn the Tide, Says World Bank ReportWASHINGTON, November 20, 2013 – A new World Bank report warns that risky behaviors –smoking, using illicit drugs, alcohol abuse, unhealthy... Show More + diets, and unsafe sex— are increasing globally and pose a growing threat to the health of individuals, particularly in developing countries. The report looks at how individual choices that lead to these behaviors are formed and reviews the effectiveness of interventions such as legislation, taxation, behavioral change campaigns, and cash transfers to combat them.Risking your Health: Causes, Consequences and Interventions to Prevent Risky Behaviors concludes that legislation and taxation, for example, tend to be effective, especially when combined with strong enforcement mechanisms. Cash transfers also have proven to be promising in some settings. Behavior change campaigns, such as school-based sex education and calorie-labeling laws, are often less effective on their own, unless they are complemented with broader risk behavior change programs.“Risky behaviors not only endanger an individual’s health and reduce life expectancy, they often impose consequences on others,” said Damien de Walque, Senior Economist in the World Bank’s research department and principal editor of the report. “The health consequences and monetary costs of risky behaviors to individuals, their families, and society as a whole are staggering and justify public interventions.”The report finds that despite recent progress in prevention and treatment, the HIV/AIDS epidemic —one of the most devastating consequences of risky sex— remains a heavy burden in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in its southern cone where between 11 and 26 percent of all adults are HIV positive. Drug and alcohol abuse have been relatively stable over the past decade, but smoking and obesity linked to unhealthy diets are on the rise in many developing countries and have the potential to substantially increase mortality and morbidity. Close to 20 percent of the world’s adult population smoke cigarettes and smoking causes more than 15 percent of deaths among men and 7 percent among women globally. While smoking prevalence is decreasing in the developed world, it is on the rise in many developing countries. Obesity due to both unhealthy foods and physical inactivity is also increasing in the developing world, especially in the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, and Latin America and the Caribbean where many countries are experiencing obesity rates above 20 percent for males and more than 40 percent for females.Engaging in such risky behaviors, according to the report, exerts a significant toll on the individual’s productivity in the long-run. Society suffers as immediate peers of those who engage in risky behaviors may also experience declines in their productivity. Children are at particular risk, for example if they have to stop schooling due to a sick parent or if development of their cognitive abilities is compromised due to early exposure to harmful substances. Furthermore, in most low-income countries, it is difficult to formally insure against these costly consequences, given the rarity of both health insurance and public or private disability benefits. According to the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, 75 percent of private expenditure on health was financed through out-of-pocket payments in low-income countries in 2011. “Individuals’ risky behaviors that cluster amongst the poor ripple throughout entire populations, crippling families’ potential and undermining the great health and economic progress we’ve seen in low- and middle-income countries in recent years,” said Tim Evans, Director of Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank Group. “Reversing the tide of these pernicious behaviors by promoting societal conditions for better health choices will pay dividends for families and countries across the globe, ultimately helping us end extreme poverty and promote inclusive and healthy growth.”The report concludes that the costs and spillovers associated with risky behaviors justify public interventions and that certain policies, when done properly, can improve overall welfare. Evidence suggests that legislation tends to be effective, especially when enforcement mechanisms are strong. Tax policies can be efficient mechanisms to prevent smoking and alcohol consumption. Most of the evidence comes from developed countries, but emerging evidence from developing countries –such as from China and Indonesia for tobacco taxes and from Kenya for alcohol prices— points in the same direction. Show Less -

Washington, D.C., October 29, 2013—Governments around the world significantly stepped up their pace of improving business regulations in 114 economies last year – an 18 percent jump from the previous ... Show More +year – laying the groundwork for local entrepreneurs to expand their work, according to the new World Bank Group publication Doing Business released today. It is the 11th in a series of annual reports on the ease of doing business, and it documented 238 business regulatory reforms worldwide last year.Doing Business 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises finds that the pace of business regulatory reform continues to accelerate following the financial crisis of 2008–09. The report says that if economies around the world were to follow best practices in regulatory processes for starting a business, entrepreneurs would spend 45 million fewer days each year satisfying bureaucratic requirements.“A better business climate that enables entrepreneurs to build their businesses and reinvest in their communities is key to local and global economic growth,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “Doing Business shows that economies with better business regulations are more likely to empower local entrepreneurs to create more jobs – another step in the right direction toward ending extreme poverty by 2030.” The report finds many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa engaged in reforms aimed at reducing burdensome regulations and building stronger legal institutions. In 2012/13, more than twice as many African economies in the region made reforms, compared to 2005. Out of the 20 economies that have most improved business regulation since 2009, nine are in Sub-Saharan Africa: Benin, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Togo.The high-income economies of the OECD, which have the best performance across most areas measured by Doing Business, focused their reform efforts in the past year on easing business entry and exit and on improving tax administration. Europe and Central Asia continued its strong pace of regulatory reform, with 19 economies implementing 65 reforms. Among the BRICS economies—Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa -- Russia made the most progress.As governments in the Middle East and North Africa grapple with political and civil unrest, they continue to face complex challenges in improving the business regulatory environment, the report finds. The Syrian Arab Republic was the economy whose regulatory environment deteriorated the most in 2012/13.Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business. Joining it on the list of the top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulatory environments are Hong Kong SAR, China; New Zealand; the United States; Denmark; Malaysia; the Republic of Korea; Georgia; Norway; and the United Kingdom.”There is a clearly discernible process of convergence around the world,” said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director, Global Indicators and Analysis, World Bank Group. “The economies with the most costly and complex procedures and the weakest institutions are gradually adopting some of the regulatory practices seen in the better performers, and this is leading to a process of catching up across many of the dimensions captured by the Doing Business indicators.” Since 2005, the report finds, some economies have emerged as regional champions in regulatory reform efforts — for example, China for the East Asia and the Pacific region, Colombia for Latin America and the Caribbean, Rwanda for Sub-Saharan Africa, and Poland for OECD high-income economies.In addition to the global rankings, every year Doing Business reports the economies that have improved the most on the indicators measured since the previous year. The 10 economies topping that list this year are (in order of improvement) Ukraine, Rwanda, the Russian Federation, the Philippines, Kosovo, Djibouti, Côte d’Ivoire, Burundi, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Guatemala. Yet challenges persist: Five of this year’s top improvers — Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, the Philippines and Ukraine — are still in the bottom half of the global ranking on the ease of doing business.Doing Business collected data for the first time this year in four economies: Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan. About the Doing Business report series The joint World Bank and IFC flagship Doing Business report analyzes regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and resolving insolvency. The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on 10 indicators and cover 189 economies. Doing Business does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors. For example, it does not measure the quality of fiscal management, other aspects of macroeconomic stability, the level of skills in the labor force, or the resilience of financial systems. Its findings have stimulated policy debates worldwide and enabled a growing body of research on how firm-level regulation relates to economic outcomes across economies. This year’s report marks the 11th edition of the global Doing Business report series and covers 189 economies. For more information about the Doing Business reports, please visit doingbusiness.org and join us on doingbusiness.org/Facebook.About the World Bank GroupThe World Bank Group is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It comprises five closely associated institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), which together form the World Bank; the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Each institution plays a distinct role in the mission to fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the developing world. For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org, www.miga.org, and www.ifc.org. Show Less -

President Knapp, Dean Brown, distinguished faculty, students, and guests,Thank you for hosting me here today. It is a privilege to be with you to talk about the challenges before us in the world – and... Show More + how the World Bank Group is working to become as effective as possible in improving the lives of the poor and vulnerable.When we look across the world today and think about the most pressing issues, the ongoing fiscal uncertainty in the United States greatly concerns us. Our hope is that policymakers resolve these issues soon. This uncertainty, combined with other sources of volatility in the global economy, could do great damage to emerging markets and developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that have lifted millions of people out of poverty in recent years. We also can’t help but focus on the upheaval that is taking place in the Middle East. Syria is now in its 30th month of war and the toll has been horrific. More than 100,000 people have been killed, 4 million people have been displaced and another 2 million Syrians have fled and become refugees in neighboring countries, adding great burdens to Jordan and Lebanon in particular. The fighting continues within Syria, and the impact of broken lives and broken economies only grows by the day.We should not avert our gaze from the Middle East. The World Bank Group has been playing several roles. At times, we are in the backrooms with diplomats and at others we are on the frontlines with humanitarian aid workers. Always, we are working with governments, or companies, or civil society groups to help build strong and sustainable foundations for development. This supports the livelihoods of millions of people in the Middle East, and billions more around the world, who aspire to good jobs, a good education, and access to quality health care.A critical part of our work is in countries emerging from conflict, affected by conflict, or stuck in a persistent state of fragility. As we know all too well, when a country remains in a long state of fragility, conflict often erupts. The World Bank Group and the wider global community need to confront the complex institutional and social challenges in these fragile states, because the cost of inaction is high and the reward of well-designed interventions is great. When we have the opportunity to build institutions, infrastructure, and human capacity in fragile states, or when we can put together a deal that brings in desperately needed private sector investment, we must seize it. When we fail to help countries develop in a way that is inclusive or fail to help countries build strong governance, we are all affected by the result, which is often a country engulfed in flames, as is Syria today.Drivers of conflictIn the Middle East, most of the countries experienced relatively strong growth of 4 to 5 percent a year in the decade before the Arab Spring. Yet serious problems were lurking below the surface. An increasingly educated young middle class was frustrated that the few available jobs were reserved for those with more connections than talent. The private sector operated by earning privileges from the state, leading to a form of crony capitalism that only helped a few, and undermined exports and jobs.The inequities – and the anger – filtered even to the very young. When a million people poured into Tahrir Square in Cairo in 2011 to protest their government, the children of the protesters held protests of their own in classrooms. They demanded better instruction. This is what happens when prosperity is reserved for a select few. All of those left out feel deeply, the burn of inequity. The ongoing crises have left many Middle Eastern countries with a triple challenge. First is restoring macroeconomic stability; second is reforming their economies to meet the high expectations of the people who marched in the streets; and third is managing the transition to new constitutions and more open, contested, multiparty elections. These challenges would be daunting for any single country. But they have all come together in one region. That makes it all the more important for the international community to marshal its resources to support those brave women and men who risked their lives to demand the basic human dignity that is their due.That also makes it important to come to the aid of Jordan and Lebanon today. The World Bank provided $150 million in emergency aid to Jordan just a few months ago, and we just completed a comprehensive economic and social impact assessment of Lebanon that found the country has lost billions of dollars due to the war in Syria.Lebanon now hosts more than 760,000 Syrian refugees, which could be likened to 56 million refugees entering the United States, 45 million of which would have entered since this January alone. Think of the disruption. Last week, I attended the UN General Assembly meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon. Donors pledged some funds for the country, but we need to do much more or we risk catastrophe in Lebanon.Our two goalsJust six months ago, our board endorsed the two goals of the World Bank Group: the first is to end extreme poverty by 2030; the second is to boost shared prosperity by promoting real income growth for the bottom 40 percent of the population.How does this relate to the situation on the ground in the Middle East and in other poor countries? The goal of ending extreme poverty stands on its own as the moral underpinning of all that we do. The fact that more than a billion people live on less than a dollar, 25 a day in 2013 is a stain on our moral conscience. We must help lift people out of poverty without delay, without prejudice, no matter the circumstance, no matter the locale.Our second goal of boosting shared prosperity is more complex, but relevant to the entire world. The protests during the Arab Spring, and the more recent ones in Turkey, Brazil, and South Africa were rooted in the universal desire to participate in the global middle class.Today, leaders around the world realize that boosting shared prosperity for the bottom 40 percent is becoming more and more critical to ensure stability. It used to be that much of this discontent boiled under the surface. But social media has created an enormous “virtual middle class,” as Thomas Friedman has called it, who will continue to knock on, and then break down, the door of opportunity.The lesson is that we should pay much more attention to whether growth reaches all the population, and not just the elite. One way to do so is by looking beyond the overall GDP growth; we need to directly monitor income gains among the bottom 40 percent. Economic progress must also be environmentally and financially sustainable over generations.So how can incomes of the less fortunate increase in a sustained way? There is more than one path to shared prosperity. One path is through increased opportunities driven by greater economic growth. Another is through a stable social contract, which focuses on raising the living standards of the poor and the disadvantaged. Both paths can lead to improved opportunities for citizens if societies can become more dynamic and productive with greater room for social mobility.Reaching our first goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 will not only be historic. It will be extraordinarily difficult. Today, our economists estimate that the number of poor people hovers at just over one billion people, or 150 million fewer than in 2010.We are making progress, but nothing is assured in this battle, and it will get much tougher the closer we get to the goal. Global growth could be slower than historic trends. Disasters driven by a changing climate could reverse years of development success. Investors could become even more skittish. Long-term financing for much needed infrastructure – already scarce – could dry up.At the World Bank Group, our two goals require us to deliver results for people. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, our goals must be “transformed from thin paper to thick action.” What will we do—all of us—to translate our plans into effective action to end poverty?A World Bank Group strategyOur answer is that for the first time, we have a strategy that will bring together the entire World Bank Group – the Bank, which works with governments; the IFC, our private sector arm; and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, or MIGA, which provides political risk insurance. We just released it a few days ago. Never before have we defined a strategy that gives us a comprehensive roadmap to guide all parts of our institution around common goals and principles.Why is this important? Bureaucracies sometimes operate in ways that keep people away from each other. They tend to create self-enclosed areas of influence. These areas become well-guarded bunkers, or silos. I know something about silos. I grew up in Iowa, and we had lots of them. Those silos of corn stood starkly alone, especially during those long cold winters. Silos perform a critical function in the cornfields of Iowa but they have no place at the World Bank Group. How can we – or any other large organization – meet our highest aspirations of serving the poor if we work in a collection of silos? We need to connect the brilliant minds in our institution so that their knowledge flows freely.The World Bank Group strategy is based on the conviction that the entire organization will work and together as a seamless whole to achieve our inspiring goals. And we know that if we are to have any chance to succeed, we must be selective – first, we must choose our priorities and then, abandon those activities that don't make the cut.What will we stop doing? We won’t continue working in areas in which others are better. We won’t enter projects for the sole purpose of meeting volume targets for the year. We won’t take on projects just to plant our flag on the ground. And we won’t tolerate behavior that promotes individual interests over the common good.So what are our principles?We will ensure that all our activities have a relentless focus on our two goals.We will become better partners to others so that together we can achieve those goals.We will be bold.We will take risks –smart risks. And by that, I mean we will invest in projects that can help transform the development of a country or a region – even if it means we might fail.We will excel at delivering local solutions by taking our global knowledge and making sure it is available to countries and companies that need it.We will take advantage of our deep experience to lead cutting-edge global practices on issues such as finance, education, health, infrastructure, energy, and water.We will always look for opportunities to help countries invest in their people. We must help countries become more competitive, and a powerful way for them to do so is by investing in the education, health, and job training of their citizens.And we will look to create innovative financial tools that can open up new opportunities for long-term financing that countries desperately need. Making the strategy a realityOur strategy calls for us to become a Solutions Bank with results for the poor as our central benchmark. Three elements of the strategy are worth highlighting.First, we will partner with the private sector to use their expertise and capital to fight poverty. This is particularly important to create good jobs for the poor.Second, we will increase our commitment to fragile and conflict-affected states, which will require us to be bolder, take more risks, and commit more resources.And third, we will be as ambitious as possible on issues that are of global importance, including investing in women and girls and combatting climate change. Our response to climate change, for instance, must be bold enough to match the scope of the problem.Creating good jobsOn the first element, one of the highest priorities at the World Bank Group will be to help create jobs. How can we most effectively help regions and individual countries position themselves for private-sector-led job growth? The scope of the challenge is daunting – the world needs to create 600 million new jobs over the next decade.A critical pathway out of poverty for the poor is through providing an open and transparent connection to local and global markets. This access can unlock entrepreneurial potential for millions.For example, one of IFC’s clients, Ecom, connects cocoa, coffee and cotton farmers in over 30 countries to global markets. Last year, Ecom helped more than 134,000 farmers and thousands more through farmer organizations.We also are expanding our group of partners to include those which are pioneering new business models. Just two weeks ago, I met Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, a Chinese firm that, among other things, accounted for 60 percent of the 8.8 billion packages mailed inside China last year. He showed me his black canvas shoes, which were made by a woman in a small village in China. Alibaba was able to drive logistics prices so low that this woman could market her shoes and ship them anywhere in China at a better price than the local shoe store. In just a few years, Alibaba has fostered the creation or growth of over 6 million small and medium enterprises in China.That is an example of a transformational business model. But there are many environments that Alibaba and other companies stay away from. We at the World Bank Group serve as a trusted advisor to the private sector, and that often means we will be the first to venture into a risky environment in order to make others feel more comfortable to invest. We know that there are several trillion dollars managed by sovereign wealth funds and institutional investors; much of it is sitting on the sidelines in low-performing funds. So we will actively work to find new ways to attract these private funds to developing country projects. One recent example was our launch of the Managed Co-lending Portfolio Program in China. The Chinese government agreed to invest $3 billion, alongside IFC; other countries are expressing interest in joining the program.A priority on fragile statesThe second example of our strategy involves our commitment to taking risks in some of the most troubled places in the world: fragile and conflict-affected states.Earlier this year, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and I traveled to the Great Lakes region of Africa to support the Peace, Security, and Cooperation Framework, signed by 11 countries. The region has been in a state of war for more than two decades, and rebel groups in the eastern Congo started a new battle a few days before we arrived. Just a couple of hours before we arrived in Goma, the groups called a cease-fire. Despite the tension, crowds of people, most of them women, lined the roads from the UN base to a local hospital. They cheered our convoy. But they also held high signs that spoke of the deep trauma they have experienced. I’ll never forget one woman’s sign. It said simply: Stop the rape. Indeed.We must move much more quickly, more urgently, to create peace dividends for countries emerging from years of conflict. We know that you can’t have development without peace. But too often we forget that peace won’t last without development. In the Great Lakes region, we moved quickly to amass an additional $1 billion assistance package to help the region. Shortly after our visit, the Bank’s Board approved $340 million to help finance the Rusumo Falls run of the river hydroelectric project to bring power to millions of people.Today, I pledge to significantly increase our support to fragile and conflict-affected states. I hope to increase the share of IDA core financing – the Bank’s fund for the poorest – to fragile states by about 50 percent in the next three years. IFC, our private sector arm, also will commit to increasing its support for fragile states by 50 percent over the next three years.The challenge of climate changeThe third and final example of our strategy is directly related to our shared prosperity goal. Shared means not only making sure that those at the bottom are part of the growth process, but also that growth will not come at the expense of future generations. We need to share the planet and its resources with our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and that means we must have a bold plan to combat climate change.Climate change poses a fundamental threat to development in our lifetime. It has the potential to put prosperity out of reach for millions of people. Every region of the world will be affected, and those least able to adapt--the poor and most vulnerable--will be hit hardest. If we want to end extreme poverty, we have to build resilient communities and mitigate shocks, like climate disasters, so that poor people can make gains in their lives--and keep those gains for the long term.Tackling climate change is not an effort that governments can take on alone. We need a response that brings together governments, private sector, civil society, and individuals, following a coordinated, ambitious plan. We can help in many ways, but perhaps most fruitfully by highlighting the increasing costs of climate change and by mobilizing climate finance from the public and private sectors. The economic costs of extreme weather events are stunning. Coastal city flooding costs $6 billion a year today, but could reach $1 trillion a year by 2050. Investing $50 billion a year in protection would avoid those costs, and free up $950 billion every year to invest in better schools, hospitals, and social safety nets.Today, I am committing the World Bank Group to direct a greater share of our own financing toward this battle and also to work with all partners interested in working on this problem in a serious way.Clean energy is our starting point. We will bring together knowledge, best practice, and financial support for countries to address the high costs and policy barriers for the adoption of cleaner energy solutions. We are on track to complete renewable energy resource mapping in at least ten countries over the next three years. We will enable energy subsidy reforms in at least 12 countries and work with partners to create new business models for cooking and lighting that utilize the rapidly improving technology of microgrids. I would also like to see at least 10,000 megawatts of additional capacity installed globally with our direct support in three years -- that’s equivalent to the entire installed capacity of Peru.ConclusionWe can reach our goals of ending poverty, boosting shared prosperity, and sharing that prosperity with future generations – but only if we work together with an altogether different sense of urgency. As I mentioned earlier, we must build a social movement to end poverty. That means we need help from all of you sitting here today, or watching this webcast, or hearing about it over Facebook, or in a tweet.Just six months ago, the board of governors for the World Bank Group laid a foundation for a social movement by endorsing our two goals and declaring that we can end extreme poverty by 2030. Now we are seeing interest from all corners. Political leaders, including President Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron, are calling for an end to poverty. Faith-based groups such as World Vision are calling for an end to poverty. The One campaign, Oxfam, Save the Children, RESULTS, and many other civil society groups are calling for an end to poverty. And young people are calling for an end to poverty.Just this past weekend, 60,000 people gathered on the Great Lawn of Central Park to watch the Global Citizens Festival, which rallied around the goal of zero poverty by 2030. I ask all of you here today – join this movement. Propel it forward. There are many things you can do – and one you can do from your seats on your smartphones right now: log on to the Global Poverty Project website -- www.zeropoverty2030.org, that’s www.zeropoverty2030.org -- and sign a petition to end poverty in a generation. Let world leaders know that this is an issue of fundamental importance to you.Our goals are clear at the World Bank Group. End extreme poverty by 2030. Boost prosperity and ensure that it is shared with the bottom 40 percent and with future generations. We have an opportunity to bend the arc of history and commit ourselves to do something that other generations have only dreamed of. At the Central Park concert, I called up my four-year-old son, Nico, to join me on stage. It was a way to make this goal tangible. When Nico is my height and a senior in college like some of you, we could hand over to him and his classmates a world free of extreme poverty.This is the defining moral issue of our time. We cannot let over a billion people suffer in extreme poverty when we have the tools and the resources to change their lives for the better. We cannot allow the bottom 40 percent of the population be denied opportunities for jobs, health, and education. We can do better. We have to do better, for Nico, for four year olds all over the world and for all future generations. For some problems like climate change, time is of the essence, but to quote Martin Luther King again, the time is always ripe to do right. Now's the time and we are the people. Let's make it happen.Thank you very much. Show Less -

Who is most at risk?The new study, part of an ongoing OECD project, examined maps and databases of population and world assets, flood-prone regions, storm frequency data, and cost of damage models for... Show More + 136 large coastal cities. For the first time, it took into account existing coastal defenses and their level of protection.In terms of the overall cost of damage, the cities at the greatest risk are: 1) Guangzhou, 2) Miami, 3) New York, 4) New Orleans, 5) Mumbai, 6) Nagoya, 7) Tampa, 8) Boston, 9) Shenzen, and 10) Osaka. The top four cities alone account for 43% of the forecast total global losses.However, developing-country cities move up the list when flood costs are measured as a percentage of city gross domestic product (GDP). Many of them are growing rapidly, have large populations, are poor, and are exposed to tropical storms and sinking land. The study lists the 10 most vulnerable cities when measured as percentage of GDP as: 1) Guangzhou; 2) New Orleans; 3) Guayaquil, Ecuador; 4) Ho Chi Minh City; 5) Abidjan; 6) Zhanjing; 7) Mumbai; 8) Khulna, Bangladesh; 9) Palembang, Indonesia; and 10) Shenzen.In most of these cities, the poor are most at risk as rapid urbanization has pushed them into the most vulnerable neighborhoods, often in low-lying areas and along waterways prone to flooding. Taking action nowOne warning from the study's findings appearing in the journal Nature Climate Change is that the cities where flood risk will increase most are not the cities where the risk is particularly high today. Port cities that haven't been highly vulnerable in the past are among those facing the greatest increase in risk by 2050. Leading the cities with the greatest increase in risk are Alexandria, Egypt; Barranquilla, Colombia; Naples, Italy; Sapporo, Japan; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. “Coastal defenses reduce the risk of floods today, but they also attract population and assets in protected areas and thus put them at risk in case of the defense fails, or if an event overwhelms it. If they are not upgraded regularly and proactively as risk increases with climate change and subsidence, defenses can magnify – not reduce – the vulnerability of some cities,” Hallegatte said. With better defenses, more people will be dependent on dikes and sea walls, and losses when those defenses fail to protect the city will get bigger. Along with better structural defenses, cities will need better crisis management and contingency planning, including early warning systems and evacuation plans, Hallegatte said. In cities where flood damage hasn't been common, spending money on flood defenses can be politically unpopular. The challenge facing government officials today is investing in protection before the damage occurs. For small countries, protection and preparation are especially important. A devastating flood in a key city can stall the entire economy of a small country, making recovery and reconstruction even more difficult. For all of the cities, the preparation will save lives and money in the future. Show Less -

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2013 – Risks from advanced economies have eased and growth is firming, despite ongoing contraction in the Euro Area. However, the pick-up in developing countries will be modest be... Show More +cause of capacity constraints in several middle income countries, says the World Bank in the newly-released Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report.Global GDP is expected to expand about 2.2 percent this year and strengthen to 3.0 percent and 3.3 percent in 2014 and 2015[1]. Developing-country GDP is now projected to be around 5.1 percent in 2013, strengthening to 5.6 percent and 5.7 percent in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Growth in Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa and Turkey has been held back by supply bottlenecks. While external risks have eased, growth in these countries is unlikely to reach pre-crisis rates unless supply-side reforms are completed. In China also, growth has slowed as authorities seek to rebalance the economy. Looking at broader region-wide trends, the East Asia & Pacific region is expected to grow by 7.3 percent this year; Europe & Central Asia by 2.8 percent; Latin America & the Caribbean by 3.3 percent; Middle East & North Africa by 2.5 percent; South Asia by 5.2 percent; and Sub-Saharan Africa by 4.9 percent.For high-income countries, fiscal consolidation, high unemployment and still weak consumer and business confidence will keep growth this year to a modest 1.2 percent, firming to 2.0 percent in 2014 and 2.3 percent by 2015. Economic contraction in the Euro Area is projected to be 0.6 percent for 2013, compared with the previous projection of 0.1 percent. Euro Area growth is expected to be a modest 0.9 percent in 2014 and 1.5 percent in 2015.“While there are markers of hope in the financial sector, the slowdown in the real economy is turning out to be unusually protracted,” Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank. “This is reflected in the stubbornly high unemployment in industrialized nations, with unemployment in the Eurozone actually rising, and in the slowing growth in emerging economies, with India’s annual growth having dropped below 6 percent for the first time in 10 years. Also, there is heightened speculation that the US may withdraw QE and widespread concern about its consequences. By going into these topical matters, the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects alerts us to both the hopes and the risks in the global economy, and also gives valuable instructions on policy.”Global trade, after contracting for several months, is expanding once again, but trade is expected to expand only 4.0 percent in 2013, well off the pre-crisis pace of 7.3 percent. Not only will the volume of trade grow less quickly than in the past, the value of trade will grow even less quickly as commodity prices begin to ease in response to rapidly increasing supply. The prices of metals and minerals are already down by 30 percent and that of energy by 14 percent since their peaks in early 2011.“The coming on stream of new mines and energy sources is putting downward pressure on most industrial commodity prices. If commodity prices were to decline even faster than expected, commodity exporting developing countries could experience serious fiscal setbacks and weaker growth,” said Hans Timmer, Director, Development Prospects Group.Part of the resilience of global trade, despite the weakness in high-income economies, has been due to rapid expansion in South-South trade. More than 50 percent of developing country exports now go to other developing countries. Even when China is excluded, South-South trade has been growing at an average rate of 17.5 percent a year over the past decade, with manufacturing trade expanding as rapidly as commodities trade.Gross capital flows to developing countries, which were relatively weak for most of the post-crisis period, have reached record levels. International bond issuance by developing countries is also at record levels, while bank lending and equity issuance for developing countries is up by almost 70 percent as compared with first 5 months of 2012. The rebound in bank-lending suggests that for developing countries the most acute effects of high-income banking-sector deleveraging have passed. Despite the uptick, as a percent of developing-country GDP, capital flows remain well below pre-crisis levels.Prospects for developing countries are varied. In several developing countries, notably in East Asia & the Pacific, demand appears to be expanding faster than supply, resulting in growing imbalances, such as inflation, asset-price bubbles, rising debt levels and deteriorating current account balances. Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are also running at or close to full capacity, risking a build-up of inflationary pressures. In developing Europe, although activity has picked up, growth has not been fast enough to quickly reduce post-crisis output gaps and unemployment. Finally, in the Middle East & North Africa, GDP growth has been disrupted by political and social tensions. Unemployment and slow productivity remain central policy challenges.“Given capacity constraints, to achieve higher growth on a sustained basis, most developing countries need to once again prioritize structural reforms like easing the cost of doing business, opening up to international trade flows and foreign investment, and investing in infrastructure and human capital. These measures underpinned strong developing country growth over the past 20 years and are worth sticking with,” said Andrew Burns, Manager of Global Macroeconomics and lead author of the report.Regional HighlightsGrowth outlooks, including forecasts for each country, are available in the full report at: www.worldbank.org/globaloutlookGrowth in the East Asia & the Pacific region was robust in the first quarter of 2013, but slower than last year. Overall, the regional economy is projected to expand by around 7.3 percent in 2013, before accelerating to 7.5 percent in 2014 and 2015. The weakness in 2013 partly reflects weak 7.7 percent growth in China, which is expected to strengthen to 8.0 and 7.9 percent in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Regional growth, excluding China, will slow in 2013 to 5.7 percent, partly due to fiscal policy tightening, but then firm on solid growth in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. Risks to the region include those surrounding the gradual reduction in Chinese investment, Japanese quantitative easing, rapidly expanding credit, and rising asset prices.After slowing sharply in 2012, GDP growth in Europe & Central Asia in 2013 will be supported by improved agricultural performance, reduced deleveraging pressures, and strengthening external demand. The rebound will, nevertheless, be constrained by weak carry-over growth due to slow growth in the last quarter of 2012, ongoing fiscal adjustments by the region’s economies, high unemployment, and still weak export demand. The region’s growth is expected to reach 2.8 percent in 2013 and 4.2 percent by 2015. Medium-term prospects for the region will critically depend on progress in addressing structural bottlenecks to economic growth, including capacity constraints, high unemployment and lack of competitiveness.Growth in Latin America & the Caribbean is expected to strengthen marginally to 3.3 percent in 2013, from 3.0 percent in 2012, as lower commodity prices and subdued global activity will weigh on growth. Growth will firm somewhat in Argentina and Brazil from a very weak pace, while slowing down in most commodity exporters. In Venezuela, the reversal of highly expansionary policies will cause a sharp deceleration in GDP growth to 1.4 percent in 2013. Improvements in terms of trade will support growth in Central America, while growth in the Caribbean will be held back by financing constraints and necessary fiscal adjustments. Over the medium term, the regional economy is expected to grow just under 4 percent annually, supported by stronger capital flows (notably FDI), recovering external demand and structural reforms.Growth in the Middle East & North Africa region is projected to slow to 2.5 percent in 2013, from 3.5 percent in 2012, reflecting a second year of recession in Iran, subdued growth in Egypt and a modest pickup in Algeria. Political tensions remain high on account of upcoming elections and referendums, and security risks are dragging down activity and investment. Rising fiscal and external account imbalances among oil importers are exacerbating funding pressures in the face of sharply lower private capital inflows since 2010. Medium-term prospects for the region hinge on the resolution of political tensions and security risks; and on the implementation of reforms to place the region’s economies on a more sustainable footing and to boost investment, jobs and growth. Regional GDP growth is projected at 3.5 percent in 2014 and 4.2 percent in 2015, as tensions ease and reforms are undertaken.GDP growth in South Asia slipped to 4.8 percent in 2012, mainly reflecting a continued deceleration in India, slower growth in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and sluggish growth in Pakistan and Nepal. Regional GDP growth is projected to pick up to 5.2 percent in 2013, before accelerating to 6.0 percent and 6.4 percent in 2014 and 2015, in line with strengthening external demand, normal monsoons, and a gradual pickup in investment spending. Growth in India is projected to rise to 5.7 percent in the 2013 fiscal year, and firm to 6.5 percent and 6.7 percent in FY2014 and FY2015, respectively. Continued progress in fiscal consolidation and in reducing structural constraints will determine the pace of recovery. Domestic risks dominate, including a possible derailing of reforms, and weaker than expected monsoon rains.Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa has remained robust due to resilient domestic demand and still relatively high commodity prices. These factors, along with projected strengthening of external demand, are expected to underpin a pick-up of growth over the 2013-2015 period to about 5.2 percent (excluding, South Africa, growth in the region will average some 6.2 percent). Nonetheless, a weaker than expected recovery in high-income countries or a sharper than expected decline in commodity prices could derail the region’s robust growth prospects and cause fiscal and current account balances to deteriorate. Domestic risks for some countries in the region include overheating in economies operating close to capacity; adverse weather conditions; and political unrest.[1] Using 2005 purchasing power parity weights, global growth would be 3.1, 3.8 and 4.1 percent in 2013. 2014 and 2015, respectively. Show Less -

What will it take to meet the Sustainable Energy for All goals for energy access, renewable energy, and energy efficiency by 2030? The Global Tracking Initiative combines the work of 15 international ... Show More +organizations to show where the world is today in energy access, renewable energy, and energy efficiency, and how far it needs to go to meet the 2030 goals.Click for HIGHER RESOLUTION Show Less -

Working towards global carbon tradingThe good news is that an increasing number of countries, provinces and cities around the globe are developing and building schemes to reduce emissions and trade th... Show More +e resulting carbon reductions. Supporting national or subnational governments to put in place these mechanisms must be a priority. Many will want to participate in some level of trading across markets and some are already entering into formal bilateral negotiations to that effect. Adoption of common approaches and frameworks will facilitate linking and significant efforts to share experience and ideas are ongoing. However, recognising that countries will choose the most appropriate approach for their national circumstances and that the result is likely to be some level of heterogeneity across markets, a flexible approach is needed. We need an approach that recognises and accommodates differences across counties and that will support efficient trading across current and yet-to-emerge heterogeneous domestic and regional carbon markets and a range of asset types. As these developments unfold, we believe it is worth exploring the idea of a globally-networked carbon market with: pricing and exchange rates to support fungibility across asset classes; a reserve carbon “currency” for conversion and trading of emission reduction assets; and services and institutions to support a market of global scale. Of course, the principle of environmental integrity would need to underpin any effort of this sort.Possible elements could include independent carbon asset rating systems to provide information to the market and domestic regulators on relative risk and environmental integrity or an International Carbon Reserve supporting, as needed, domestic and regional reserves to help avoid extreme price swings. It could have a clearing-house function to establish exchange rates and possibly act as market-maker for new assets. It could also oversee a cross-border settlement platform to track cross-border trades and holdings of various carbon asset classes.But there are those who doubt that any form of carbon market could still work. What gives us confidence is the level of innovation in countries exploring domestic market mechanisms. There is evidence that carbon pricing can work if it is flexible and aligned with national policy initiatives, in particular economic priorities.While prices in major existing carbon markets like the EU Emissions Trading System flounder, many new national carbon pricing initiatives are emerging. And, not surprisingly, among the new carbon pricing initiatives, many include design features to manage extreme price volatility. The Partnership for Market Readiness In March, the Bank hosted a meeting of the Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR) – a growing coalition of over 30 developed and developing countries working on various solutions to carbon pricing. The World Bank acts as secretariat, trustee and principle delivery partner for the initiative. We are seeing more and more countries taking innovative domestic action.China is showing extraordinary leadership in this field. China’s seven pilot programmes – capturing between them five cities and two provinces with a total population of 246 million and accounting for a cumulative GDP of $1.6 trillion – are planned to launch this year. Shenzhen will launch its pilot in June 2013; Beijing and Shanghai will follow shortly thereafter. These pilots will pave the way for establishing a national carbon market, and China is already looking ahead to how it might link its ETS with others.The PMR is also supporting Chile, which is putting in place the necessary building blocks for an emissions trading system in its energy sector, including building a greenhouse gas registry system to track emission permits.South Africa is spearheading a carbon tax, which will be implemented in 2015. The design of the system includes a carbon offset scheme that helps companies meet their liabilities.Outside of the PMR, South Korea is preparing the first phase of its ETS, to start in 2015. And in California, compliance obligations came into force at the start of this year for its cap-and-trade programme which, when it expands in 2015 to fuel providers, will cover 85% of the state’s emissions.Innovation generating actionIt is progress at the country level that gives hope – the innovation, energy and farsightedness among the people developing these national and sub-national systems that convinces us at the World Bank that carbon pricing is emerging and carbon markets have a future.We hope to jumpstart a fresh debate. We don’t know if these are the right answers, and they are certainly not the only answers, but we do know that we need to work with everyone – policy-makers, the private sector and civil society – to develop our ideas, learn from others, and together decide how best we can move ahead on catalysing stronger political ambition and translating ambition into robust, predictable carbon prices.At the World Bank Group, we will continue to support innovation and offer technical analysis to countries as they explore their carbon options, and investigate mechanisms that can bring markets to a scale commensurate with the challenges we face.We cannot afford to fail in our efforts to limit climate change. Show Less -

WASHINGTON, April 19, 2013 – The World Bank today announced the establishment of the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD), envisioned to become a global hub of knowledge ... Show More +and policy expertise on migration issues.KNOMAD was initiated in response to the rapid growth in migration and remittances over the last decade. Nearly one billion people – that is, one out of every seven persons on the planet – have migrated internally and across international borders in search of better opportunities and living conditions, with profound implications for development.Remittance flows to developing countries have more than quadrupled since 2000. Global remittances, including those to high-income countries, are estimated to have reached $529 billion in 2012, compared to $132 billion in 2000. "Migration and remittances offer a vital lifeline for millions of people and can play a major role in an economy's take-off. They enable people to partake in the global labor market and create resources that can be leveraged for development and growth. But they are also a source of political contention, and for that very reason deserving of dispassionate analysis,” said Kaushik Basu, the World Bank’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics, as he participated in an event to mark the launch of KNOMAD. “The World Bank has played a critical role in migration and remittance research and KNOMAD will be critical in taking this agenda forward."Established with the support of Switzerland and Germany, KNOMAD aims to generate and synthesize knowledge on migration issues for countries; generate a menu of policy choices based on multidisciplinary knowledge and evidence; and provide technical assistance and capacity building to sending and receiving countries for the implementation of pilot projects, evaluation of migration policies, and data collection.The program will focus on a number of key thematic areas: improving data on migration and remittance flows; skilled and low-skilled labor migration; integration issues in host communities; policy and institutional coherence; migration, security and development; migrant rights and social aspects of migration; demographic changes and migration; remittances, including access to finance and capital markets; mobilizing diaspora resources; environmental change and migration; and internal migration and urbanization. It will also address several cross-cutting themes, such as gender, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, and public perceptions and communication.Drawing on global expertise, KNOMAD’s outputs will be widely disseminated and will be available as global public goods.According to the latest edition of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, issued today, officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries grew by 5.3 percent to reach an estimated $401 billion in 2012. Remittances to developing countries are expected to grow by an annual average of 8.8 percent for the next three years and are forecast to reach $515 billion in 2015. Given that many migrants send money and goods through people or informal channels, the true size of remittances are much larger than these official figures.The top recipients of officially recorded remittances for 2012 are India ($69 billion), China ($60 billion), the Philippines ($24 billion), Mexico ($23 billion) and Nigeria and Egypt ($21 billion each). Other large recipients include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Lebanon.As a percentage of GDP, the top recipients of remittances, in 2011, were Tajikistan (47 percent), Liberia (31 percent), Kyrgyz Republic (29 percent), Lesotho (27 percent), Moldova (23 percent), Nepal (22 percent), and Samoa (21 percent).“The role of remittances in helping lift people out of poverty has always been known, but there is also abundant evidence that migration and remittances are helping countries achieve progress towards other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as access to education, safe water, sanitation and healthcare,” said Hans Timmer, Director of the Bank’s Development Prospects Group. However, the high cost of sending money through official channels is an obstacle to the utilization of remittances for development purposes, as people seek out informal channels as their preferred means for sending money home. The global average cost for sending remittances was 9 percent in the first quarter of 2013, broadly unchanged from 2012. The Brief also discusses efforts to feature migration and remittances in the Post-2015 Development Framework that is currently being discussed as we approach 2015, the target date for reaching the MDGs.“Migration is a defining issue for global development,” said Dilip Ratha, Manager of the World Bank’s Migration and Remittances Unit and head of KNOMAD. “This underscores the need for an initiative such as KNOMAD, which will generate evidence-based research to facilitate constructive debate and discussion on migration issues with the aim of developing practical policy options for sending and receiving countries.” Show Less -

India: The India Elementary Education Project (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or SSA) (IDA $1.25 billion over two projects, Specific Investment Loans) is an example of a project that reaches out to groups that... Show More + have been excluded, aiming to boost the enrollment of children from poor families, marginalized and tribal groups and those with special needs. It has helped the government enroll more than 17 million out-of-school children in elementary school, including girls, first-generation learners from long-deprived communities and minority communities, and children with special needs. The number of out-of-school children declined from 25 million to 8.1 million (less than 5 percent of the age cohort 6-14). Approximately 2.9 million children with special needs have been identified and are being covered with a variety of interventions, like residential centers, home-based education. With these efforts, India is moving toward its target of ensuring that all children will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling much before the international Millennium Development Goal target date of 2015. Bank ContributionOver the past five years (FY08 – FY12), IBRD/IDA lending for Social Development projects totaled $4.9 billion. Close to half of the composition of IBRD/ IDA social development lending during this period was focused on the theme of participation and civic engagement, followed by conflict prevention and gender. PartnersThe World Bank is well positioned to use its convening power and wide range of partnerships to contribute to advancing the social agenda. The Bank has been working with government ministries and partnering with academic and research networks. Work on fragility and conflict, gender, and climate change have involved partnerships with multilateral organizations such as the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as well as bilateral development agency counterparts (the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and so forth). Global development nongovernmental organizations, including environmental groups, indigenous peoples’ organizations, and humanitarian aid organizations, are also important partners in social development work. Moving Forward Given the persistent challenge of poverty, the social development principles of inclusion, cohesion, resilience, and accountability will continue to be integrated across the Bank’s portfolio. The Bank and its client countries will need to work more comprehensively to address social opportunities, risks, and results to ensure social sustainability of policy and operational engagement. A robust framework for results monitoring will support evidence-based policy making and program formulation.The Bank will continue to make a concerted effort to bring poor peoples’ voices and concerns into the development process. For IDA countries, this involves addressing issues of vulnerability, exclusion, isolation, violence, unaccountable institutions, and powerlessness, which are essential for overcoming poverty. Rapid urbanization, increasing urban poverty, insecurity, and violence in informal settlements require a rethink on dealing with poverty, informality, deprivation, and human dignity.Beneficiaries Bangladesh has been successful in reaching out to women, especially rural women through various development programs. One such program is Notun Jibon – New Life, administered by the country’s Social Development Foundation with IDA assistance. So far, over 1,400 villages have benefited from this community-driven program, which has provided critical village infrastructure in rural areas, such as improved schools, roads and bridges, and clean drinking water. Under this program, elected committee members in villages decide on and oversee what needs to be done in their communities. Women hold 80 percent of all the program’s decision-making positions, once controlled by men.Beauty Ara, a community member from Mohodipur in Gaibandha district who is isbenefiting from the program, says she has seen a dramatic change in the role of women in the country. When she was a small girl growing up in Bangladesh, her family did not even allow her to go to school. Now she is part of her village’s decision-making process, and says she’s working to ensure that the entire community, both men and women, have a fair chance at receiving an education and applying for jobs.Morsheda Akhter Mili is from the Ajhupipar village that has benefited from the program. She says her village is steadily making progress. “The roads which are being constructed will be beautified by us through green plants. We want to earn money by cultivating fish in the leased ponds of our village. Through our organization, we want to establish a grocery complex from where each of us can buy our required items. This is our dream.” Show Less -

WASHINGTON, November 20, 2012 – Remittance flows to the developing world are expected to exceed earlier estimates and total $406 billion this year, an increase of 6.5 percent over the previous year, a... Show More +ccording to a new World Bank brief on global migration and remittances.Remittances to developing countries are projected to grow by 7.9 percent in 2013, 10.1 percent in 2014 and 10.7 percent in 2015 to reach $534 billion in 2015.Worldwide remittances, including those to high-income countries, are expected to total $534 billion in 2012, and projected to grow to $685 billion in 2015, according to the latest issue of the Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, released today.However, despite the growth in remittance flows overall to developing countries, the continuing global economic crisis is dampening remittance flows to some regions, with Europe and Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa especially affected, while South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are expected to fare much better than previously estimated.The top recipients of officially recorded remittances for 2012 are India ($70 billion), China ($66 billion), the Philippines and Mexico ($24 billion each), and Nigeria ($21 billion). Other large recipients include Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Lebanon.As a percentage of GDP, the top recipients of remittances, in 2011, were Tajikistan (47 percent), Liberia (31 percent), Kyrgyz Republic (29 percent), Lesotho (27 percent), Moldova (23 percent), Nepal (22 percent), and Samoa (21 percent).“Although migrant workers are, to a large extent, adversely affected by the slow growth in the global economy, remittance volumes have remained remarkably resilient, providing a vital lifeline to not only poor families but a steady and reliable source of foreign currency in many poor remittances recipient countries,” said Hans Timmer, Director of the Bank’s Development Prospects Group.Regions and countries with large numbers of migrants in oil exporting countries continue to see robust growth in inward remittance flows, compared with those whose migrant workers are largely concentrated in the advanced economies, especially Western Europe.Thus, South Asia, MENA and East Asia and Pacific regions, with large numbers of workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, are seeing better-than-expected growth in remittances. For South Asia, remittances in 2012 are expected to total $109 billion, an increase of 12.5 percent over 2011; East Asia and Pacific region, is estimated to attract $114 billion, an increase of 7.2 percent over 2011; while MENA is expected to receive $47 billion, an increase of 8.4 percent over the previous year.Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean are supported by a recovering economy and an improving labor market in the United States but moderated by a weak European economy. The region will, thus, see a modest growth of 2.9 percent in 2012, totaling an estimated $64 billion.In contrast, remittances are expected to remain flat to Europe and Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa regions, mainly because of the economic contractions in high-income European countries. Remittance flows to Europe and Central Asia are estimated at a virtually unchanged $41 billion and $31 billion to Sub-Saharan Africa this year, although both regions are projected to make a robust recovery in remittance flows in 2013.“Migrant workers are displaying tremendous resilience in the face of the continuing economic crisis in advanced countries,” said Dilip Ratha, Manager of the Bank’s Migration and Remittances Unit and lead author of the Migration and Development Brief. “Their agility in finding alternate employment and cutting down on personal expenses has prevented large scale return to their home countries.”Going forward, the Bank expects continued growth in remittance flows to all regions of the world, although persistent unemployment in Europe and hardening attitudes towards migrant workers in some places present serious downside risks.Another obstacle to growth of remittance flows is the high cost of sending money, which averaged 7.5 percent in the third quarter of 2012 for the top 20 bilateral remittance corridors and 9 percent for all countries for which cost data are available. The average remittance cost for Sub-Saharan Africa was 12.4 percent, the highest amongst all developing regions.The Migration and Development Brief also notes that the promise of mobile remittances has yet to be fulfilled, despite the skyrocketing use of mobile telephones throughout the developing world. Mobile remittances fall in the regulatory void between financial and telecom regulations, with many central banks prohibiting non-bank entities to conduct financial services. Central banks and telecommunication authorities, thus, need to come together to craft rules relating to mobile remittances.The Brief also discusses the implementation of the new remittance regulations in the United States and Europe and concludes that these regulations are likely to lower remittance costs in the long run by increasing competition and improving consumer protection.“The global community has made progress in three out of four areas of the global remittances agenda – data, remittance costs, and leveraging remittances for capital market access for countries. Progress, however, has been slow in the area of linking remittances to financial access for the poor. There is great potential for developing remittance-linked micro-saving and micro-insurance schemes and for small and medium enterprise (SME) financing,” said Ratha. As a key player in the migration and remittances arena, the World Bank is working on a new initiative, the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD), which is aimed at facilitating multidisciplinary debate and discussion on migration issues, developing policy options, and assisting sending and receiving countries implement pilot policies.The Bank also continues to make considerable strides in developing financing instruments for leveraging migration and remittances for national development purposes. Diaspora bonds can be a powerful financial instrument for mobilizing diaspora savings to finance specific public and private sector projects, as well as to help improve the debt profile of the destination country. The Bank has also set up a Diaspora Bond Task Force to provide technical assistance to countries interested in implementing diaspora bonds for financing development projects. The Migration and Development Brief and the latest migration and remittances data are available at www.worldbank.org/migration. Show Less -